Friday 9 March 2012 08.00 EST
First published on Friday 9 March 2012 08.00 EST

One was a single mum who had just quit her job in the City, another worked in theatre while a third wanted to do something in Canada. The last was a teenager whose parents wanted her to be a doctor.

They were all among 140 women of all ages to take part in the speed-mentoring event that helped kickstart the Women of the World (Wow) festival on International Women's Day. In total 300 women will get the chance to chat to another one this weekend in a sort of sped up blind date to troubleshoot career issues or problems.

It works like this. The mentors, women from all walks of life, sit in a semi-circle facing outwards. The exact same number of mentees sit on chairs facing them. They have exactly 15 minutes to discuss an issue or challenge that they are facing before moving on. In total, each woman gets to speak to four different professionals.

It sounds mad and once the starting bell had gone the resulting sound of 280 women talking was deafening. Yet it was incredibly inspirational and fun, and it made me wonder why mentoring isn't more common.

Cherie Blair opened proceedings by saying that men as well as women had been great mentors to her but Jude Kelly, Wow guiding light, pointed out that women were somehow tarred with an envious, unsupportive brush in their dealings with younger colleagues which was either unfair or unnecessary.

"I too have worked in an industry where too often women say, 'There's only room for one of us around here and it's going to be me'," she said. "But it doesn't have to be like that. There's room for a lot more of us."

She went on to say that both sides tended to get something from the exchange: in listening to other people's stories it is possible to understand your own career path or the decisions you have taken. "It's a chance to tell the story or hear it again yourself."

I can see why the event has proved so popular. Last year, Wow had three sessions with 90 women mentored. This year there are seven sessions with opportunity for 300 women to be mentored.

The 42-year-old single mum who walked out of a highly paid job and signed up to do the degree (studying part-time) that she had missed out on the first time round asked me how I motivated myself. I laughed and suggested that she was hardly lacking in the motivation department. Next year mentors may get the chance to ask advice themselves. I can't wait.